Avoidance or exhaustion?

I often find that as the time before a concert gets shorter, my tolerance for practicing for it gets shorter, too. This doesn't seem logical: why don't I want to practice more? In any case, I came home from work last night around 8:00, completely exhausted.

As my husband pointed out, I've been working really hard all week, going to work and then coming home and practicing until midnight or later. Even if this were purely for enjoyment it would still be tiring. Of course, if it's not for enjoyment, why am I doing it? As any dedicated musician knows, every moment of the process is not going to be enjoyable, and in fact many will be drudgery. But we have to press on. The times when I just threw up my hands and said the heck with this, I'm not going to practice, I've been sorry (mostly).

In any case, last night, I threw together some dinner (my husband was out with friends), read a magazine while lying flat on my back, and then dragged myself to my practice room. But then I just couldn't get the cello out. I finally sat down at the piano and practiced Brahms, Gerswhin, and Bach for about a half hour and then called it a night. I was in bed and asleep by 11:00.

I woke up this morning feeling much better. Now off to orchestra rehearsal.