Finally have a working data retrieval system using mongoose and jQuery in the browser.
I wanted to use a specific table to query against, but didn't have the time (or patience) to keep messing with it.

The working copy here will get and fetch the data from the console using the following:
jQuery.post( '/messages/', {
    'title':'fake title 1',
    'body': 'fake message body 1',
    'owner': 'self 1',
    'recipient': "Bigfoot 1",
    'status': 'unsent 1',
    'dateSent' : '1/1/1111'
}, function(data, textStatus, jqXHR) {
    console.log( 'Post response:' );
    console.dir( data );
    console.log( textStatus );
    console.dir( jqXHR );
});
jQuery.post( '/messages/', {
    'title':'fake title 2',
    'body': 'fake message body 2',
    'owner': 'self 2',
    'recipient': "Bigfoot 2",
    'status': 'unsent 2',
    'dateSent' : '2/2/2222'
}, function(data, textStatus, jqXHR) {
    console.log( 'Post response:' );
    console.dir( data );
    console.log( textStatus );
    console.dir( jqXHR );
});
jQuery.post( '/messages/', {
    'title':'fake title 3',
    'body': 'fake message body 3',
    'owner': 'self 3',
    'recipient': "Bigfoot 3",
    'status': 'unsent 3',
    'dateSent' : '3/3/3333'
}, function(data, textStatus, jqXHR) {
    console.log( 'Post response:' );
    console.dir( data );
    console.log( textStatus );
    console.dir( jqXHR );
});

jQuery.get( '/messages', function( data, textStatus, jqXHR ) {
    console.log( 'Get response:' );
    console.dir( data );
    console.log( textStatus );
    console.dir( jqXHR );
});
Finally have a working data retrieval system using mongoose and jQuery in the browser.
I wanted to use a specific table to query against, but didn't have the time (or patience) to keep messing with it.

The working copy here will get and fetch the data from the console using the following:
jQuery.post( '/messages/', {
    'title':'fake title 1',
    'body': 'fake message body 1',
    'owner': 'self 1',
    'recipient': "Bigfoot 1",
    'status': 'unsent 1',
    'dateSent' : '1/1/1111'
}, function(data, textStatus, jqXHR) {
    console.log( 'Post response:' );
    console.dir( data );
    console.log( textStatus );
    console.dir( jqXHR );
});
jQuery.post( '/messages/', {
    'title':'fake title 2',
    'body': 'fake message body 2',
    'owner': 'self 2',
    'recipient': "Bigfoot 2",
    'status': 'unsent 2',
    'dateSent' : '2/2/2222'
}, function(data, textStatus, jqXHR) {
    console.log( 'Post response:' );
    console.dir( data );
    console.log( textStatus );
    console.dir( jqXHR );
});
jQuery.post( '/messages/', {
    'title':'fake title 3',
    'body': 'fake message body 3',
    'owner': 'self 3',
    'recipient': "Bigfoot 3",
    'status': 'unsent 3',
    'dateSent' : '3/3/3333'
}, function(data, textStatus, jqXHR) {
    console.log( 'Post response:' );
    console.dir( data );
    console.log( textStatus );
    console.dir( jqXHR );
});

jQuery.get( '/messages', function( data, textStatus, jqXHR ) {
    console.log( 'Get response:' );
    console.dir( data );
    console.log( textStatus );
    console.dir( jqXHR );
});