STP Blocking state on port up time

So the topic of discussion is if an interface actually STARTS in blocking
mode when a port is turned up. My previous studies led me to believe an
interface coming up goes DIRECTLY to listening state, followed by learning
and forwarding, yielding a total convergence time of exactly 30 seconds.
Some other labbing and documentation seems to contradict this IN CERTAIN
CASES

Documentation and some Cisco press books mention an interface always starts
in blocking. Others, like the old cat 4000 guide indicate it starts in
listening.

Lab tests are mixed.

- If portfast is NOT enabled, "debug spanning-tree events" never mentions
anything about blocking. It simply says it transitioned the port to
listening. The question becomes what did we transition from ?

- If portfast IS enabled, we actually see in the debug that it "jumped from
blocking to listening", although this happens almost immediately

- The other interesting thing is that on some switches I tested with there
is a period of up to 5 seconds from the moment you hit enter to the moment
it transitions to listening state. On other switches it's immediate. The
question becomes, is that 5 seconds "blocking" state or something else? My
thought there is it could be just port initialization, DTP, auto
negotiation, etc.

So definitively, can anybody really say if when a port first initializes it
does or does not technically pass through the blocking state or if it
actually starts in listening? Perhaps there is an answer alluding me, or
perhaps it is truly platform dependent.

-- 
Regards,
Joe Astorino
CCIE #24347
http://astorinonetworks.com
"He not busy being born is busy dying" - Dylan
Blogs and organic groups at http://www.ccie.net