How to make node.js and mysql work together?

Thanks in advance for your help!

I am making a node/express app and I want to use a mysql database. But I can't seem to connect to the database.

I know I'm supposed to use the node-mysql module (https://github.com/felixge/node-mysql), but I must be doing it wrong.

I'm completely new to this. Do I have to create a database and then create a table? Is there a way to create a database elsewhere so it doesn't get erased every time I restart the app?

Here's my code. Can someone answer the questions above and tell me what I'm doing wrong below? Thanks!

var express = require('express'),
  routes = require('./routes'),
  user = require('./routes/user'),
  http = require('http'),
  io = require('socket.io'),
  path = require('path');

var app = express();
var server = http.createServer(app);
sio = io.listen(server);

app.configure(function(){
  app.set('port', process.env.PORT || 3000);
  app.set('views', __dirname + '/views');
  app.set('view engine', 'jade');
  app.use(express.favicon());
  app.use(express.logger('dev'));
  app.use(express.bodyParser());
  app.use(express.methodOverride());
  app.use(app.router);
  app.use(require('stylus').middleware(__dirname + '/public'));
  app.use(express.static(path.join(__dirname, 'public')));
});

app.configure('development', function(){
  app.use(express.errorHandler());
});

server.listen(app.get('port'), function(){
  console.log("Express server listening on port " + app.get('port'));
});


var mysql      = require('mysql');
var connection = mysql.createConnection({
  user     : 'me',
  password : 'secret',
  host     : 'localhost',
  port     : app.get('port')
});

connection.connect();

connection.query('CREATE TABLE tesTable (integer int, textfield VARCHAR(100), PRIMARY KEY(integer))',
                  function(err, result){
                      if(err) {
                          console.log(err);
                      } else {
                          console.log("Table testTable Created");
                      }
                  });

By the way, in package.json, I listed

"mysql": "2.0.0-rc2" 

as a dependency and did

'npm install'