Comfort Tense

I'm editing the first, messy draft of my new YA contemporary set in Hong Kong.

So far it's fun, but I have a confession to make.

I can't write in first person past tense.

I've tried with several books, but then I get a few chapters in and have to switch back because I'm too confused to go on.

This is my question:

Do people who write in first person past tense choose a time period from which their main character is viewing the events of the story?

I'm asking because when I get to the necessary telling bits of the story, I always screw up.

In present tense it's easy. For example:

Gerald has a track record of stealing my best friends. Anyone who hangs around me realizes she has an excellent shot at getting a boyfriend thrown into the bargain. I eye Gerald, trying to see him like a non-sister-person might. He’s painfully awkward and a video-games nerd, but I can see girls thinking that’s loveable. And he’s cute, of course, which doesn’t hurt his prospects. 

When I try to put this type of paragraph into past tense, I get confused. If my MC is telling the story from some point in the future, all this stuff might still be true about Gerald, so shouldn't it still be in present? Plus, I feel like it sounds odd in past tense, as if Gerald is now dead (at the time of the story's telling).... For example:

Gerald had a track record of stealing my best friends. Anyone who hung around me realized she had an excellent shot at getting a boyfriend thrown into the bargain. I eyed Gerald, trying to see him like a non-sister-person might. He was painfully awkward and a video-games nerd, but I could see girls thinking that was loveable. And he was cute, of course, which didn't hurt his prospects.

See what I mean? Or am I crazy? Is that how it's supposed to be or is some sort of hybrid paragraph the right way to go? For example:

Gerald has a track record of stealing my best friends. Anyone who hangs around me realizes she has an excellent shot at getting a boyfriend thrown into the bargain. I eyed Gerald, trying to see him like a non-sister-person might. He was painfully awkward and a video-games nerd, but I could see girls thinking that was loveable. And he was cute, of course, which didn't hurt his prospects.

Any advice from past tense ninjas out there? (MELISSA!) Have I successfully confused anyone else?

I'm reading this book right  now, which happens to be in first person past tense and I'm trying to study it to see how a master like Maureen Johnson pulls it off. Maybe some day I'll get brave enough to switch out of my comfort tense.

Do you have a favorite tense?